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“I know things change and we’ll all be gone before it’s changed too much but when we are gone it still will rain in summer in the north and hawks will still nest in the Cathedral at Santiago. The great thing is to last and get your work done and see and hear and learn and understand.”

Ernest Hemingway - Death in the Afternoon​

Hey y’all,

It’s difficult to write a letter you know will be read by people in at least seven countries, when what you really want to write about is the chaos you are currently experiencing in your country. It’s difficult to describe the feeling of doom you are feeling to people who do not feel that doom. And it feels like you're being gaslit, as if your fears are unwarranted, because while democracy is collapsing around you, you still have to go to work and buy groceries and really need to buy a new washer and dryer and hope there is a Fourth of July sale out there you can take advantage of.

This is not the introductory essay I had intended to write. In fact, I had already written the one I planned to write - it is here - when the Supreme Court ruling was announced yesterday. It felt irresponsible to hit send on that version.

I’ve been writing these notes for nine years now. During that time, some hard stuff has happened to all of us. A global pandemic that killed more than a million people. The US Capitol was stormed by insurrectionists. Terrorist attacks. So many mass shootings. Wars. People we love have died - sometimes in horrible ways, and almost always too soon.

And during that same time, people have had babies, and gotten married, written beautiful poetry, and fell in love. I’m glad we got to face all of that together, too.

I wish I knew something to say when it feels like the world is crumbling around you, but I don't. At least not anything I haven't said before.

Stay hydrated. Get plenty of sleep. No, more sleep than that. Eat good food, and preferably with people you care about.

Don't let anyone steal your humanity - look for opportunities to help others, even if on the smallest of scales. Find the humor where you can, and laugh as much as you can.

Check in with your vulnerable friends. If you don't have any vulnerable friends, please work to fix that.

In the midst of feelings of powerlessness, search for things you can still control, and do that. Feel everything you need to, but don't stay there, because we have many years of work to do, and we need you in the fight.

Love always wins in the end. And if it seems like love didn't win, it's only because it isn't the end.

Don't give up, and don't give in. And love each other really, really hard.

Five Beautiful Things

The band OK GO’s video for their song This Too Shall Pass is a nearly 4 minute long Rube Goldberg (Heath Robinson in the UK) setup. I watched it four times in a row and am convinced I still missed things. It’s brilliant.

The website Exposure One has their One Shot Photo Contest winners up. I love Black and White photography - I always have, ever since my Dad would develop his own Black and White film in our bathroom when I was a kid. (via Dense Discovery)

I’m not shocked to learn that elephants have names, and know them. After all, TS Elliot told us that all cats have at least three names. (via Kottke)

I know Fred Astair gets all the (fully deserved) love, but I am always mesmerized by Gene Kelly’s dancing. His body does things that it seems bodies should not be able to do, all the while looking like the guy down the street. Here he is in a clip from Summer Stock, defying physics while smiling.

As someone whose most shared piece of writing is about grief, people send me things. Above is a lovely picture of a quote I loved. But who wrote it? Popular answers include the Jamie Anderson who was a producer for Dr. Who last decade, but with some google-fu I found it on a blog post written in March of 2014, by a woman named Jamie Anderson who had to put down her dog. The whole piece is here, and it’s beautiful. I think a lot about the ephemeral nature of the internet - all the lovely things people have written and shared but are now gone, or nearly so.

In Case You Missed It

My most opened link last issue (~ 9% of opens) was to these woodblock botanical prints.

I recently published two pieces on my blog:

​Touching Grass - about engaging the real world - and The Love List, which is a list of 100 things I love.

I'm planning on publishing more on my blog, so you may want to go here and sign up to read it in your inbox.

Thank you!

We had a total of 11 new members join last month. Members are folks who are sort of like NPR sustainers - they kick in a bit each month in order to make sure I can keep this publication free and ad-free. You can learn more about becoming a member here.

Other ways to support me and this work include buying me a cup of coffee, sharing the web version of this letter (see the link at the top of the page) on social media, send some cash via a half-dozen ways, send a note to the address at the bottom of the page, or just forward this email to your friends. But however you do it, I'm grateful beyond words for your support over the years.

But most of all, thanks for reading. It means the world to me.

Take care,

HH